Transport Committee on Nov. 28th, 2022

[Tom Oommen]

The agency makes regulation based on the legislative framework that the agency is presented with. We would need either a change to the legislative framework or direction from the minister to change the regulatory framework.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Has consideration been given to updating the entire CTA model from a quasi-judicial tribunal to an administrative body?

[Tom Oommen]

The agency has these two roles. These roles are set in the law, both as administrative tribunal and as a regulator. That is based on the current legislative framework.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Iacono.

Go ahead, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval. You have six minutes.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The last time the Canadian Transportation Agency appeared before the committee, the backlog of complaints was reported. If I'm not mistaken, 18,000 or 20,000 complaints had not yet been processed.

Could you give me an update on the number of complaints received by the CTA that have still not been processed yet?

[Michelle Greenshields]

Thank you.

We continue to receive a high volume of complaints, although the pace has reduced since the summer. For example, we received 5,800 complaints in the month of August in comparison to the period before the APPR came into force when we received 7,600 complaints for the entirety of the fiscal year 2018-19.

Our current backlog is 30,000 complaints. Currently, 80% of those cases have been received since April 1, 2022. We continue to work to address these cases with the resources that we have and to review our processes to optimize our processing capacity as we go forward.

We've already found ways to more quickly review cases informally and formally through the batching of cases, that is, finding cases that have a common flight and being able to handle them with a larger volume, streamlining our manual processes.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

I heard the answer to my question: right now, you have 30,000 unresolved complaints.

You also mentioned that you have increased your capacity to deal with complaints. If I'm not mistaken, you said that you used to process between 5,000 and 6,000 complaints annually and that you are now processing 15,000. So, it will take about two years to process the entire backlog of 30,000 complaints. I imagine that you have plans to continue improving your processing speed so that you can handle more.

You also mentioned that a large number of complaints were resolved through facilitation and mediation, which was the primary method used.

I think you also group complaints, to deal with a number of them.

Once the complaints are considered closed, do you call the complainants back to find out if they were satisfied with the outcome? Do you have any statistics on complainant satisfaction?

[Tom Oommen]

Mr. Chair, we do, in fact, do a survey of the passengers who bring complaints to us afterwards, and we do measure complainants' level of satisfaction with our service.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Is it possible to send the committee information on the satisfaction studies that have been done on how complaints are handled? I think that would shed some light on the state of the situation and the satisfaction of complainants who use the agency.

What we have heard previously from consumer associations is that people are somewhat discouraged by how long it takes to process complaints, even that some people, faced with the administrative mountain, simply decide to give up. If you have any data on what's really going on, it would be interesting for our study.

It was also pointed out to us that many airlines may be banking on the fact that only a small number of aggrieved individuals would file complaints. For example, if all the passengers on a given flight received false information, but only two of them complain, and the resolution of those complaints is ultimately in the consumers' favour, do you have a way to inform all passengers on that flight of the outcome of those complaints?

[Tom Oommen]

Mr. Chair, first of all, we would be happy to provide after this meeting those statistics that were mentioned. I will also say that all of our adjudicated complaints are on our website. For those that are actually adjudicated, the decisions are published on our website.

That information about adjudicated cases is also provided to our facilitators, who deal with the vast majority of cases in discussions with the airlines and the passengers. That information about the results of adjudications is also fed into that process of dialogue, that facilitation process at the beginning of the complaint resolution process.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

If I understand correctly, the agency deals with the complaint through facilitation or the administrative tribunal, but there is no proactive approach with other consumers who may have been similarly harmed on the same flight. So there is no incentive for an airline to properly inform passengers. It will say that if one out of 300 consumers files a complaint, there will be at most one out of 300 who will receive compensation, while the others will get nothing. That's more or less my question for you.

[Tom Oommen]

Mr. Chair, I can't speak for the members of the agency who would adjudicate and issue decisions on each case based on the evidence before them. I will say, however, that there are means to extend parts of a decision that apply to one complainant to the other passengers on a flight.

In a number of cases, we have already informed the parties to those disputes that we will be considering extending a decision made for an individual complaint to the other passengers on the same flight. We have also more generally informed the air carriers that it is our intention to actively use these provisions. They were mentioned at an earlier hearing in this study; section 67.4 was the—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Oommen.

Thank you very much, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

Next we have Mr. Bachrach.

Mr. Bachrach, the floor is yours. You have six minutes.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to our witnesses.

Does the CTA have an estimate of the percentage of passengers affected by delays and cancellations who pursue complaints through the CTA?

[Michelle Greenshields]

We can speak to the portion of complaints that we have that are related to flight disruptions. Currently, of the cases that were received in 2021-22, 43% of the total complaints were related to flight disruptions.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Forty-three percent of the incoming complaints were related to flight disruptions, but obviously there are thousands and thousands of people who are affected by delays and cancellations. The CTA has an estimate of how many flights over the past couple of years have been delayed or cancelled. Do we have a ballpark estimate?

The number that was given to us by a previous witness was that 2% of passengers are actually pursuing complaints through the process. Does that seem like a reasonable percentage?

[Tom Oommen]

Chair, the number that we found to be a reasonable approximation that we use for forecasting complaints into the future is that roughly 1 in 5,000 passengers will issue a complaint.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

One in 5,000 passengers will issue a complaint.

As you just mentioned, the CTA has the ability to enforce these rules on a per flight basis, as opposed to a per passenger basis. You indicated that the agency has informed carriers that it intends to use this in the future. Why hasn't the agency used this power to date?

[Tom Oommen]

I'll preface this by saying the thing that I always have to say: I can't speak for members of the agency who adjudicate and issue decisions on each case based on the evidence before them. However, I will say that there are at least two ways in which agency decisions made with respect to a single complaint can have an impact that goes beyond that single complaint.

The first way, which is particularly important for new regulations, is through the interpretation of regulations such as the APPR. When members of the agency interpret the facts of a case, that serves as a model for the cases that will follow.

Given the newness of the regulation, our emphasis has been on interpretation. It is true that sections 67.4 or 113.1 can be used to extend elements of a decision to other passengers on the same flight. However, there are a couple of points to note, Chair.

First, 97% of complaints that come to the agency are resolved through informal means. Most complaints don't actually make it to members to adjudicate and issue decisions. For those complaints that do get to adjudication, as I said, in a number of cases, we have already started notifying the parties to those cases that it is our intention to consider using section 67.4.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Just to be clear here, if someone goes through the process and it's resolved in facilitation and they get some sort of compensation under the APPR, there's no way to extend that facilitated outcome to the other passengers on the same airplane on the same flight who were affected in exactly the same way unless it goes all the way to adjudication.

[Tom Oommen]

Chair, the way that works is as follows. We spoke earlier about batching complaints by flight so that there is some way of knowing what complaints were from a flight, so the facilitators who follow a particular flight or flight disruption are made aware of what the facilitated solution was in that particular case. That information is shared with the other facilitators who may have to deal with other complaints from the same flight, so there is a common understanding among facilitators as to what happened in that case.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I think you understand what I'm getting at, which is that if the CTA awards compensation through facilitation to two passengers on a flight that was cancelled, all the other passengers who were affected should also reasonably be entitled to that compensation; but a lot of passengers, we know, don't go through the process because, frankly, it's pretty onerous. I've been through it, and it's a really frustrating process to go through. You have to wait 30 days for the airline to get back to you. Then you have to fill out all sorts of online forms.

Isn't it reasonable to extend the reach of compensation through facilitation to all of the passengers affected on the flight regardless of whether they went through the process?

[Tom Oommen]

Chair, I mentioned earlier that through the other half of the agency, through the regulatory and enforcement half, we have been successful in having discussions with the airlines that have resulted in their recategorizing flights to be within control and, therefore, offering compensation to passengers. We have been successful in that.

I would emphasize, Chair, that facilitation is, as the name suggests, a facilitated, informal process in which there are discussions and agreement on a way forward. There is no weight of law behind a facilitated solution.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

During the legal facilitation process is the passenger provided with the information the airline provides to the facilitator?